Kazakh security officials, aided by a Russian-dominated “peacekeeping” deployment, appear to have established a measure of control in Almaty and other major cities Friday after nearly a week of violence and unprecedented public demonstrations against the government.
The relative calm after Kazakhstan’s authoritarian president, Kassim-Jomart Tokayev, gave security officials a standing shoot-to-kill order to deal with protesters and blamed the crisis on “bandits” and unnamed foreign-backed terrorists.
“I have given the order to law enforcement agencies and the army to shoot to kill without warning,” Mr. Tokayev said in an early Friday address, contending that order had “basically” been restored in the country.
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The Russian troops helping put down the protests are part of a first deployment ever dispatched by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a regional security alliance dominated by Moscow. Troops from Belarus are also reportedly in Kazakhstan and Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are expected to contribute forces as well.
Analysts say the crisis gives Russian President Vladimir Putin another chance to assert Russia’s pre-eminence in its strategic neighborhood and gain more leverage over the Tokayev government. But the Kazakh crisis also presents a distraction for the Kremlin as it engages with Washington and the NATO alliance over the crisis in Ukraine.
Sparked initially by a protest in the western part of the vast country against a sharp rise in fuel prices, the demonstrations quickly engulfed Almaty and cities across the landlocked Central Asian country. Many protesters demanded broader political reforms and the sidelining of longtime former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, still a dominant behind-the-scenes figure despite stepping down as president in 2019.
Internet and messaging services have been mostly cut off since the protests began, making it hard to gauge the full extent of the violence.
Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry said Friday that at least 26 protesters had been “liquidated” and 18 government security forces had died in the clashes in Almaty, which included pitched battles and gunfire in the heart of the city. More fatalities are likely in clashes in provincial cities in recent days.
But correspondents for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other outlets said security forces appeared to have established a modicum of control, with far less visible signs of protest or violence in cities around the country.
The Biden administration and Western governments have watched with alarm as Russian and allied troops, invited in by Mr. Tokayev, have quickly deployed to prop up the government.
Russia’s Defense Ministry told the TASS news agency that nine Russian II-76 military transport planes had landed at Almaty’s airfield loaded with airborne troops and equipment to support the Kazakh regime. The ministry said control of the airport, which had been targeted along with major government buildings by the demonstrators, was now once again in the government’s control.